ART Rebrands To Lotus GP For 2012

The team will use the same colours as the Lotus F1 Team - Photo: Lotus GP

The ART name will vanish from the grids of the GP2 and GP3 Series from this year, as the French squad rebrands to become known as Lotus GP.

The team, who have earned various successes in junior formula over recent years, ran as Lotus ART in both GP2 and GP3 during 2011 to reflect a new partnership with the car manufacturer.

For this season the team will lose the ART moniker from its name entirely, as it becomes Lotus GP. Its cars will run in black and gold livery, as opposed to the green and yellow used last year, to bring it into line with Lotus' Formula 1 team.

“The relationship between Group Lotus and ART continues to intensify and both parties will benefit from sharing technological developments and engineering support,” said Lotus motorsport director Claudio Berro.

“The partnership goes far beyond an agreement on the team name – this is just the tip of the iceberg. The collaboration between ART and Group Lotus is deeply rooted in the culture and daily life of both entities. For example, Lotus' road cars, like the Elise and the Evora will benefit directly from the impacts of developments made by the team on the circuit as well as in the factory.

“The current and future cars will benefit from developments in performance, endurance and stability at high speed and in return, the racing team can draw its inspiration from world-renowned engineering, since Lotus Engineering’s engineers may be assigned to Lotus in the GP2 and GP3 Series.”

Team boss Frederic Vasseur said: “I am proud and happy to have the chance to give this new boost to the venture and to have the confidence of as prestigious an auto maker as Group Lotus, whose heritage in the sporting world is known worldwide. I am very happy about the sporting and technical prospects this partnership offers our team. It will enable both entities to capitalize on each others’ expertise in order to rise to big challenges in the coming years.”